Thursday, January 16, 2014

A Map of Preventable Disease Outbreaks

Andrew Wakefield's fraudulent research paper claiming a link between the measles vaccination and autism proved to be an international health disaster. Many parents around the world refused the vaccination for their children leading to a rise in measles in many countries.

While this map of Vaccine Preventable Outbreaks starts in 1998 and therefore doesn't show the almost immediate huge increase in measles after Wakefield's paper it does show some residual detrimental effects of the paper, as many parents are still refusing to have their children immunized against measles.

Of course the rise in measles is not the only tragedy visualized by this Google Map. The map plots global outbreaks of measles, mumps, whooping cough, polio, rubella, and other diseases that are easily preventable by inexpensive and effective vaccines.